Japan March Slowdown Exceeded Estimates; BOJ Cuts GDP Forecast
This article is for subscribers only.
Japan’s economy had a greater hit from last month’s disaster than anticipated, with factory output declining the most since at least the end of the U.S. occupation and the central bank slashing its growth forecast.
Factory output fell 15.3 percent from February, the biggest drop since data began in 1953, and household spending slid 8.5 percent from a year earlier, the government said today. The Bank of Japan cut its growth estimate for the year ending March 2012 to 0.6 percent from a January prediction of 1.6 percent.